# Elementary | Asking Height and Weight

An episode of [ChinesePod - Beginner](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1489328856), 10 Apr 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/109bf914/podcast/play/118072020/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-7%2Fa8c40167-297a-3961-cb1e-09892c2baefb.mp3

Just by being a foreigner in China, you're a fair target for all sorts of personal questions. So don't be surprised when you're asked how tall you are, or how much you weigh. In this lesson, learn to answer these questions. Remember: for personal questions like these, truth is optional. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1670

## Transcript

[0:06] Watch. What to learn Chinese but
[0:09] Chinese? But that's the way to learn
[0:13] Chinese. Chinese, but that's the way to
[0:20] learn Chinese. Hi, everybody.
[0:24] Welcome to Chinese Pod. I'm Jason.
[0:26] Hi, I'm Jenny. This is an elementary lesson.
[0:29] That's right. And it's about asking somebody
[0:31] something about themselves, right?
[0:33] A rather personal question regarding their height and
[0:36] weight. But what's interesting, I think
[0:38] about China is that this is not so much of a personal question,
[0:41] at least not very private information.
[0:43] People share this very openly with other people usually.
[0:45] So it's quite appropriate to ask someone how tall are you and how
[0:50] much do you weigh? Exactly.
[0:52] So what is the word for call Jenny?
[0:54] Cow, cow. So it's GAO, first tone cow.
[1:00] Edition Cow. And the second one heavy is.
[1:04] Jong Zhong. ZHONG 4th tone.
[1:09] Wait, Zhong, now the 4th tone does sound quite heavy, doesn't
[1:13] it? And GAO actually is the Dee
[1:15] shung is the highest, the first tone is the highest, right?
[1:17] So high and heavy. Great mnemonics.
[1:21] Yeah, the tone kind of fits the feeling.
[1:23] OK, let's listen to the dialogue for three times.
[1:31] De Hua de bien. The RPN.
[2:12] I. OK, we're back.
[2:45] First, we're going to go through the dialogue line by line, with
[2:48] a translation for each line. How tall are you?
[2:56] How tall are you? 1m and 78 centimeters.
[3:04] EMI Chipa. 1M and 78. EMI Chipa.
[3:11] How heavy? How heavy?
[3:21] About 120 kilograms. About 120 kilos.
[3:28] That guy Ibai aishu gong Jin huh.
[3:32] Nichoma Pang. Huh.
[3:34] You're that fat. Huh, Nichoma Pang.
[3:38] Huh. You're that fat.
[3:42] Huh. Nichoma Pang Oh Boutuay, Boutuay
[3:46] Shi, Leo Shu Gong Jin, Ibai Aishu Jin.
[3:51] Oh no, that's not right. I'm 60kg and 120 gene.
[3:56] Oh, Oh no. No, no, I'm 60 kilos and 120
[4:05] gene. Oh, don't.
[4:17] Scare me? Gosh.
[4:21] Don't scare me. So I guess for our North
[4:28] American, or I should say American listeners, the system
[4:32] of measurements used in this lesson is pretty foreign to you.
[4:36] Yeah, unfortunately I think most Americans aren't familiar with
[4:40] the metric system when most of the rest of the world uses it.
[4:43] So in China, like the rest of the world, they use the metric
[4:46] system. OK, let's get into some more
[4:48] details about the metric system and the language in this
[4:51] dialogue. OK, so in this first line the
[4:54] girl asked the guy how tall are you and how does she do that Me.
[4:58] Tall cow, me tall cow. So there's only three
[5:02] characters. So literally when we look at
[5:05] this, we see you many or much tall.
[5:10] Tue NI tua cow, and we already know that cow means tall, high,
[5:16] tall, tall, and this tua here is actually a way of asking how
[5:23] tall. Yeah, it gets translated into
[5:25] how, but actually it means many or much.
[5:28] So it's saying how much height do you have, right?
[5:30] Yes. So dua GAO means how tall?
[5:34] And we're actually going to see this pattern used again in the
[5:37] dialogue to mean the same thing, to use dua to turn a sentence
[5:39] into a question. Yes.
[5:41] So one more time. How tall are you?
[5:45] NI Dua GAO me. OK.
[5:49] And his response is? I am 1M and 78.
[5:53] EMI Chipa. EMI Chipa.
[5:57] So this little word in there for meter is what?
[6:00] Me me. OK, so now we know the word for
[6:03] meter. So he's 1 meter one me, which is
[6:07] am I third tone right? So that dissension me and it's
[6:11] actually the same character as Rice.
[6:14] That's right. I'm 1 Rice.
[6:15] Yeah. EMI Chiba.
[6:19] EMI Chiba. OK.
[6:22] So there's actually a couple interesting things about the end
[6:24] there. The Chiba.
[6:26] First of all, there is no word for centimeter, it's just
[6:28] implied, right? Yeah, it's assumed that you will
[6:31] both understand you're talking about centimeters, right?
[6:34] Centimeters. Actually we do this in English
[6:35] as well. We do 6 foot six or something
[6:37] like that. Yes.
[6:38] So IMI chi BA, you can drop the Chinese word for centimeters.
[6:44] And you can also drop another important character normally
[6:47] would be Chi Shir BA, right? You would add a shir to make it
[6:51] 78, but here we don't even have that.
[6:53] So why is that, Jenny? Because we want to be lazy.
[6:57] OK, so it's a way of abbreviating it right?
[6:59] Making it easier to say. Yes.
[7:01] So in this kind of context, when you're talking about height,
[7:04] when you say IMI Chiba or for example IMI Liu, people will
[7:10] understand you're talking about 1 meter 78cm or 1 meter 65
[7:16] centimeters. OK perfect.
[7:17] So whatever height you are, you can say I am 1m and then the
[7:20] next two digits without the without.
[7:21] The Sheer, Jason. Nidogao, Imiba.
[7:25] Imiba. See how I took out the sheer
[7:27] there right? I can just say 1 meter 8 and
[7:30] that means meter and 80 centimeters.
[7:33] It might get some practice to get used to.
[7:35] So when you're free, just keep practicing with different
[7:39] numbers. Yeah, How?
[7:41] Now let's ask an even more private question.
[7:48] So again, that's duo duo first tone as we know, and drone, it's
[7:52] just heavy like we previewed in the beginning ZHON G4 tone.
[7:56] So duo drone means how much do you weigh, How heavy are you?
[8:01] Yeah. So again, this door is like, how
[8:02] right. So how much So you have how much
[8:04] weight? How heavy are you?
[8:07] Actually, I'm kind of a big guy. You know, I'm not huge, but I'm
[8:10] big. And I remember first coming to
[8:11] China and having everybody ask me this question and feeling so
[8:14] embarrassed. But now you've got used.
[8:16] I'm totally used to it. I have no problem with it do.
[8:18] You lie about your weight. I don't, but I don't weigh
[8:20] myself that often so I think maybe it fluctuates and.
[8:23] How? How?
[8:23] Well, let's look at how much this person in the dialogue
[8:26] weighs. Takai eBay arshu Kongjing.
[8:30] Takai eBay, Arshu kongjing. All right, so first let's look
[8:34] at that amount. We had eBay arshu Kongjing,
[8:37] right? And that, eBay arshu, is what?
[8:40] EBay Arshu is 120. And then at the end we added on
[8:46] the unit of measurement, right, which was.
[8:49] Kongjing. Okay, that's kilogram.
[8:53] Yes, two first tones. Okay, kilogram.
[8:57] Okay, but at the beginning of that sentence we had a special
[8:59] word that was 2 characters that sounded something like that guy,
[9:03] right? Yes guy.
[9:05] Two 4th tones guy and that means roughly or about approximately.
[9:12] Yeah. So if you're not totally sure of
[9:14] a number, if you're listing numbers or telling somebody a
[9:16] number and you're not totally sure, or if it's just about a
[9:19] certain number, you can just throw that guy right before that
[9:21] and there you go. It's approximately.
[9:23] Exactly so this person seems rather heavy.
[9:27] That guy Ibai Ashu Gongjin. 120 kilograms is quite heavy, yeah.
[9:32] So which prompts the woman to say, Huh?
[9:36] You drum a pound, you drama pong.
[9:41] So we have the word for fat. There is pong, right?
[9:43] 4th tone PANG. Do a pong.
[9:45] Before that, we have this drama. Drama, drama.
[9:50] It's almost like an exclamation. Yeah, it's like you're surprised
[9:54] by the weight. You're surprised by how fat this
[9:56] guy is. So you're this fat.
[9:58] You're so fat. The way drama means to this
[10:01] degree, to this extent. To this, Yeah, that's a perfect
[10:03] way of putting it. You drama Pong, and in China,
[10:08] it's quite OK to say those kind of statements right to someone's
[10:12] face. Exactly.
[10:13] The word fat means something different and has different
[10:16] cultural implications. Even though it gets translated,
[10:18] Pong gets translated as fat. I think it's culturally
[10:20] different, so don't be offended by this word.
[10:23] Pong Well, so now the man realizes that he was using a
[10:27] different system of measurement, so he corrects himself.
[10:32] Oh Budwe Budwe Shi Liu Shu Gong, Jing E Bai are shooting.
[10:38] Yeah, so we hear this word gongjin again, right?
[10:40] Yes, the word for kilogram. But this time, he's not 120 of
[10:44] these. He is.
[10:45] Leo Shu Shu Leo Shu gongjin. So he is 60 gongjin or 60
[10:51] kilograms. Yes, which is the equivalent of
[10:55] E bai are shooting, E Bai are shooting.
[10:59] So now we have the gin and no gong.
[11:02] So what is a gene? Just to make matters more
[11:05] confusing for our American listeners, Gene is actually used
[11:10] in China. It's the default.
[11:13] Measurement. Yeah, measurement of weight in
[11:16] China and that's half of a kilo. Which is actually very close to
[11:20] a pound. Do I think 1 gene is 1.1 LB?
[11:25] OK, good. So it's very close.
[11:27] Weigh. So he actually weighs 120 of
[11:29] these Jin, not gongjin, right, Which is the Chinese measurement
[11:31] that we use. Yes.
[11:32] So remember Gongjing. Gongjing means kilograms, OK.
[11:38] And jinjing means Jin. It's the Chinese.
[11:42] Vision. Kilogram.
[11:45] Yes. How?
[11:47] And at the end, the woman says. So literally here we have don't
[11:57] scare to die me. So means to scare someone to
[12:05] death. And of course, it's an
[12:06] exaggeration. Yeah, exactly.
[12:10] So. Don't scare me to death.
[12:13] She's like, oh wow, that's so much fatter.
[12:15] When she looks at this person, hears that he's way fatter, You
[12:17] know, it's a terrifying thought. Well, regarding this lesson, I
[12:21] think we have a ton to discuss in terms of the math, the system
[12:27] of measurements, as well as some cultural stuff.
[12:29] So why don't we listen to the dialogue 3 more times and get
[12:33] into this discussion later? Welcome back to another
[12:36] installment of Chinese Pod trivia, and the question for you
[12:44] is for what test does Chinese Pod offer preparation services
[12:47] for? Is it a the polygraph, B the
[12:50] colonoscopy, C the HSK test, or D the CAT scan?
[12:56] The CAT scan. Oh, sorry, that is incorrect.
[12:59] The correct answer is C, the HSK test.
[13:02] That's right, Chinese Pod will thoroughly prepare you to pass
[13:04] this rigorous test of proficiency in Chinese dot com.
[13:28] Forward slash HSK. The.
[14:22] I. OK.
[14:31] So hopefully you picked up some more on your last run through of
[14:34] the dialogue there. I think it's a pretty
[14:35] interesting. It's actually a really common
[14:37] situation for people to AB ask these questions and B to
[14:40] completely misunderstand the different measurement systems.
[14:44] So let's review them again. If you're talking about height,
[14:48] for example if you are 1.88 centimeters.
[14:53] Yeah, you would say I am. EMI Papa.
[14:57] EMI Papa So 1 meter 88. OK, so this MI is the meter
[15:03] right? Shuda and if you are Yao Ming,
[15:06] then you're. Super tall.
[15:08] Do a liao MI how much 20 something.
[15:11] I don't know actually. Let's say he's 224, Liao MI ARS.
[15:17] Liao MI ARS meters to 4. How?
[15:21] And then let's move on to weight.
[15:24] We hurt two different units. One is Kongqing.
[15:28] Kongqing. Which is the word for kilogram.
[15:32] Dwe and then also Jing. Which is the Chinese unit of
[15:36] measurement that is roughly equal to half of a kilogram DWE.
[15:39] Jing. Now this word Jing is very
[15:42] useful in daily life, not just talking about your weight.
[15:47] If you're out shopping, buying fruit, vegetable, buying grocery
[15:51] in general, we quote prices like how much it is for a gene.
[15:57] Right. This is what people use.
[15:59] This is what people thinking in Chinese.
[16:01] Way way, If you're out buying some veggies and you ask the
[16:06] person how much do Xiao Qian and the price they give you is the
[16:10] price for each gene. Exactly.
[16:13] So that person is going to measure it according to gene in
[16:15] their heads, but then sometimes when they actually put it on the
[16:17] scale, the scale because it's an official scale.
[16:20] No more confusion, no more confusing details, Jason.
[16:25] Well, let me ask you then, if I'm an American and I don't want
[16:28] to learn these systems because I'm stubborn like many Americans
[16:30] seem to be with these systems, how do we say the word for inch?
[16:35] Well, why don't we leave that to our listeners, to our bodies, if
[16:40] you know how to say the word for inch, feet and maybe pound.
[16:44] Pounds or even stones. This is the crazy English system
[16:47] of measuring weight. Yes, do tell us in today's
[16:50] comments page. Thank you very much for
[16:53] listening. We'll see you next time,
[16:54] Saadian. Saadian.
[16:59] As usual, Chinese Pod provides an extensive selection of
[17:01] learning materials for this lesson on its website,
[17:04] www.chinesepod.com. You can access this lesson
[17:09] directly with the lesson number. 1. 670.
[17:12] So just go to www.chinesepod.com slash. 1670.
[17:18] And you will find a transcript, vocabulary and much more.
[17:22] Link again www.chinesepod.com/one. 670.

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